COLUMN REPORT

[jware]

Using FileMaker V5 in Windows environment I am trying to produce a columnar report; example below.

Header A Header D

Data field Data field

Data field

Header E

Header B Data field

Data field Data field

Data field

Header C

Data field

Data field

Data field

End of example.

In the example above the report should print Header A thru C until it reach bottom of page

then print remaining headers and detail lines

in next column. The idea is it should look like columns in a magazine article that has printed information in columns on the same page.

In my database I can have information under 1 to 45 headers. Print should only occur for header that has detail lines. No detail information, no header print.

Anyone know if this is possible in FileMaker?

Jware

[Vaughan]

Are "Header A" etc separate fields? If they are then I'd have to say that it's a bad way of designing the system.

Think about how magazine articles are written: each article has a heading and a story, an author, etc. A "database magazine" data structure should reflect this: each article is a separate record, each record has a heading, bodym author etc.

The layout only needs to be simple, because it will just be printing out the current found set of records.

So to answer your question, yes it can be done, but only if your data design is suitable. Keep it simple!

[jware]

Thanks Vaughan for your response.

I guess I should have mentioned that those

headers represents departments under which

highschool classes fall. They are summary

information that is shown in a student's

transcript.

Student #1001 take classes in English, Math,

Science, etc. These classes falls in different depatements.

When a transcript is viewed or printed the

information must have a department header followed by classes that fall within that department, then on to the next sent of classes with its dept header. Different students will have different classes and thus different department.

Summarizing the data by student id and department is not the problem. Currently we do this using COBOL on a mainframe. Someone got the bright idea to migrate this to the desktop using FileMaker. Everything is working except getting the print to go to another column when there is too much for one column.

I am fairly new at this FileMaker stuff so am having a problem getting it all sorted out.

If you can shed more light on a solution to my problem with this additional information I will appreciated it. If not, thanks anyway.

I am think of getting the boss to switch to MS Visual Basic which I know something about.

Of course that cost more money.

James

James

quote:

---

Originally posted by Vaughan:

Are "Header A" etc separate fields? If they are then I'd have to say that it's a bad way of designing the system.

Think about how magazine articles are written: each article has a heading and a story, an author, etc. A "database magazine" data structure should reflect this: each article is a separate record, each record has a heading, bodym author etc.

The layout only needs to be simple, because it will just be printing out the current found set of records.

So to answer your question, yes it can be done, but only if your data design is suitable. Keep it simple!

---

[Vaughan]

How have you created the columns? FMP manages the wrapping between columns itself.

I suppose I'd better explain what *I* mean by multiple columns -- I mean the printed page has newspaper-style columns of text on it. This differs from the "columnar report" where the layout has the fields arranged in columns along the top of the page, the records appear as rows going down the page.

Getting a columnar report is easy -- create a new layout and choose columnar report from the choices, then follow the instructions.

Getting multiple columns is a bit more difficult. Create a new layout -- make it blank to start off with. From the Layouts menu choose Layout Setup and click the option to pring in multiple columns. Click OK.

Your layout will now have a dotted line dividing it into two parts: a grey part and a white part. The white part is the area you haev for each record (the grey part is where the other columns will appear on the page). Put your fields etc onto the white part of the layout. Remember that the layout only appears correctly when previewed or printed, not in browse mode.

You might what to try using the Sliding/Printing options to remove some of the unused white space on the columns.

Oh. The other option to look at is the summary part: the page breaks option starts a new column when working on multi-column layouts. This can be good to get each "section" beginning on a separate column.

[This message has been edited by Vaughan (edited December 06, 2000).]